TESNA: A Tool for Detecting Coordination Problems

Detecting problems in coordination can prove to be very difficult. This is especially true in large globally distributed environments where the Software Development can quickly go out of the Project Manager’s control. In this paper we outline a methodology to analyse the socio-technical coordination structures. We also show how this can be made easier with the help of a tool called TESNA that we have developed

Coordination Implications of Software Coupling in Open Source Projects

The effect of software coupling on the quality of software has been studied quite widely since the seminal paper on software modularity by Parnas [1]. However, the effect of the increase in software coupling on the coordination of the developers has not been researched as much. In commercial software development environments there normally are coordination mechanisms in place to manage the coordination requirements due to software dependencies. But, in the case of Open Source software such coordination mechanisms are harder to implement, as the developers tend to rely solely on electronic means of communication. Hence, an understanding of the changing coordination requirements is essential to the management of an Open Source project. In this paper we study the effect of changes in software coupling on the coordination requirements in a case study of a popular Open Source project called JBoss

Detecting Coordination Problems in Collaborative Software Development Environments

Software development is rarely an individual effort and generally involves teams of developers collaborating to generate good reliable code. Among the software code there exist technical dependencies that arise from software components using services from other components. The different ways of assigning the design, development, and testing of these software modules to people can cause various coordination problems among them. We claim\ud that the collaboration of the developers, designers and testers must be related to and governed by the technical task structure. These collaboration practices are handled in what we call Socio-Technical Patterns.\ud The TESNA project (Technical Social Network Analysis) we report on in this paper addresses this issue. We propose a method and a tool that a project manager can use in order to detect the socio-technical coordination problems. We test the method and tool in a case study of a small and innovative software product company

Pendekatan Budaya Kerja untuk Mengurangi Ketidakselarasan Antar Divisi pada Batik Bogor Tradisiku

Keselarasan organisasi atau Perusahaan adalah derajat kolaborasi antara struktur, strategi, dan budaya. Selanjutnya, budaya akan dibagi ke dalam empat aspek, yaitu aspek kekeluargaan (clan), kreasi inovasi (Adhocracy), hierarki (hierarchy), dan pasar (market). Kemudian, penelitian ini akan membuktikan apakah kekuatan pertalian (Power Relationship) dan kepemimpinan (Leadership) dapat menjadi katalis yang mempercepat terbentuknya keselarasan organisasi. Penelitian ini bertujuan mencari jenis pendekatan budaya kerja yang cocok untuk diterapkan di Batik Bogor Tradisiku untuk mengurangi terjadinya ketidakselarasan antar divisi, melihat pengaruh dari budaya, kekuatan pertalian, dan kepemimpinan terhadap keselarasan dan menjelaskan melalui implikasi manajerial. Hubungan sebab akibat ini dianalisis menggunakan Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) dengan pendekatan Partial Least Squares (PLS) untuk confirmatory factor analysis tingkat dua. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Batik Bogor Tradisiku perlu melakukan pendekatan budaya kerja Adhocracy untuk menggantikan clan, dan didukung dengan leadership style yang tepat akan mempercepat terciptanya keselarasan dalam Perusahaan

A process pattern language for coordinated software development

In distributed and collocated teams we often find problems in the organizational process structures. Though process patterns have been around for many years, there has been little research in categorizing the different solutions to various problems dealing with coordination, for easy access by practitioners. This study aims to describe a way to use the emerging idea of a pattern language to deal with problems related to coordination in software development. The patterns are a result of conclusive statements in the information systems and software engineering field and a pattern language is used to develop these patterns. We propose a technique to convert the knowledge base in IS and CS research on coordination into process patterns which are more accessible to practitioners

Software Development in Multiteam Systems: A Longitudinal Study on the Effects of Structural Incongruences on Coordination Effectiveness

This study examines structural incongruences between organizational and product domains and their implications for coordination effectiveness in large-scale software development. We use the ongoing shift from on-premise to cloud-based software solutions to examine longitudinal effects of structural incongruences, i.e. the mismatch between organizational structures, including knowledge and task dependencies, and product structures, including technical dependencies, and how they resolve. We integrate extant literature in this field with literature on multiteam systems (MTS) and team composition to guide our longitudinal case study of one particular MTS within a large software organization. First insights from an initial case study of three development teams of different MTSs show how high level structural incongruences emerge on a team-level, providing a foundation for our subsequent study. By exploring the effects of structural incongruences over time, we expect to contribute to existing literature on organizational and product structure alignment as well as on MTS coordination effectiveness research